One Canadian team will play, two others might not…

A few interesting pieces of news coming out today. In addition to their friendly against Macedonia on November 14, the men’s national team will play against Poland (in Poland, naturally) on November 18.

I’ll leave it up to Pompey Canuck to tell us whether this matchup is potential good news or bad news for our FIFA ranking, but as a fan, any chance we get to see the men’s national team is fine by me. Also, it’s worth noting this is the third friendly against a European squad the CSA has arranged this year, which is surely more than any of us would have expected.

But on the other side of things, reports surfaced today[and were subsequently confirmed] suggesting that both the Vancouver Whitecaps and Montreal Impact are done with the USL. Yes, the two teams that just competed for the league’s championship will apparently not be back in said league next season (though, without their presence, will the league itself even continue to exist?) Without getting into the intractable debate between the league and the Team Owners Association, suffice to say this is bad news for Canadian soccer supporters, as having two of our pro franchises in a state of limbo can only do negative things for the sport’s profile in this country.

It’s especially worrisome for fans in Montreal… while at least the west-coasters know they’ve got MLS on the horizon in 2011, what does this mean for the Stade Saputo faithful? Just when they thought their roller-coaster year was ending on a high after hoisting the USL championship trophy, this happens. Yikes.

In the end, as always, we Canadian soccer supporters are deprived of any possibility of contentment, instead having to subsist on an unsatisfying combination of confusion, worry and doubt. So it goes.

[Addendum: Post edited to remove a reference to us not “hearing a peep” from the CSA on the Poland friendly; as noted in the comments below, the game was announced on the CSA’s website a few hours after the news was discovered on FIFA’s website.]

Why do people say that if we play a certain match it’s bad for our FIFA ranking. I might be wrong but you don’t receive negative points if you lose a match, no matter who you lose it too. That’s why it’s important to play as many matches as possible.